The present invention generally relates to eyeglass devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to a magnetic hinge system which is particularly adapted to mount auxiliary eyeglasses or other eyewear, such as sunglass lenses, onto primary eyeglasses.
People often wear eyeglasses to correct their vision, be it near-sighted or far-sighted. The eyeglasses have a main frame with lenses fitted thereto. Protective-lens eyeglasses are also available of generally the same construction.
There are instances, such as when in the sun, when an auxiliary eyewear, such as sunglasses, is desirable. There exist clip-on sun shades which are clipped to the rim or frame of the primary eyeglasses. However, most such sun shades are typically not able to be pivoted upwardly and out of view, such as when entering a building or the like from outdoors. Instead, the sun shades must be completely removed and stored in a pocket or the like of the eyeglass wearer.
Advancements in the field have led to the use of magnetic members which are used to removably attach the sun shade or auxiliary lenses to the eyeglasses. However, the magnetic connections are typically not pivotally arranged so as to enable the user to “flip-up” the sun shades away from the eyeglass lenses.
Yet other prior art auxiliary eyewear require specially manufactured eyeglasses for a stable connection. Alternatively, the auxiliary eye shades must be semi-permanently attached to the eyeglasses, such as using screws or the like. Of course, this does not enable the eyeglass wearer to conveniently remove the sun shades or auxiliary lenses.
In addition to the shortcomings described above, prior art auxiliary eyewear in general has the shortcoming that they are not adapted to be connected to any piece of eyewear. That is, the prior art auxiliary eyewear does not have universal connection means. Instead, they rely upon clips or attachments to the eyeglass to the primary eyeglasses which are usually very specific in nature. If not completely specific, the auxiliary eyewear still suffers a drawback of connecting to the primary eyewear in such a manner so as to limit it to only several styles of eyewear. This is due to the differences between the “nose bridge” portion of the frames and the size of the frames of the primary eyewear which varies dramatically between different styles.
In addition to removably and rotatably associating auxiliary eyewear with primary eyewear, there are other instances where a detachable connection between objects is desirable. In particular, there are instances where both a detachable and rotatable connection is preferred or even necessary.
Accordingly, there is a continuing need for a hinge system which detachably connects two objects and permits the objects to be at least partially rotated with respect to one another. There is also a continuing need for auxiliary lenses or eye shades which can be easily detached and connected to a pair of pre-existing eyeglasses. Such auxiliary eyewear should be capable of being detatchably connected to virtually any primary eyewear so as to be universal in nature. Preferably, such auxiliary lenses should be capable of being pivoted out of alignment with the lenses of the regular eyeglasses. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides other related advantages.